For The Now And For The Future
by For You Blue
Summary: Set just prior to the events of End Prog. Nibbles, Professor Welman Matrix, encounters a young girl binome who is the key to his freedom and finding his family...but first they're going to have to convince a certain young renegade sprite that there's more to Megabyte's former pet than meets the eye.


_Disclaimer: I do not own ReBoot, nor any of the characters appearing in this story belonging to the television show._

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**For The Now And For The Future**

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**Time**: Just Before The Events Of _End Prog..._

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**N**ibbles. That wasn't his name…although that despicable virus Megabyte would incessantly call him that…or worse, call him 'Father'.

The null that had once been –_No, I am_– Professor Welman Matrix made a sad squeaking noise as he looked aimlessly around the glass tank Megabyte kept him in.

_It's insulting the way he keeps me like a pet_, Welman thought, defeatedly looking around the room in the Principal Office as best as his small, shimmering green head could manage in his slug-like null form. Memories had slowly returned to Welman over the almost five hours he'd been kept by Megabyte, memories of who he was and, more importantly, of his family.

Professor Matrix sighed, his precious children. His beautiful Dot and energetic scamp of a son, Enzo. Immediately following his memories returning, Welman kept devising new ways to escape from Megabyte and return to his children.

He'd seen them on the vidscreens occasionally. Dot had become a business woman and Enzo was getting so big, Welman was so proud of them.

They seemed to be spending a lot of time with a silver haired sprite who called himself Bob, and was a being from the Net called a Guardian. Professor Matrix had always known there were other systems out there, and this young Guardian was proof of that. At the least, Welman was thankful there was a good man sprite around for Enzo to look up to since he wasn't there.

It pained Welman more than anything he couldn't be there for Enzo, he _needed_ his father these past hours. Dot was 1.9 when he'd been turned into a null, practically all grown up, but his son was barely 0.7…Welman shook his head. _Enzo would be 1.1 now. I've missed so many birthdays_…

Megabyte hadn't come into the main office for over two minutes. Welman had heard blast shots in the distance and the building would periodically shake, but no-one had entered the room where he was located.

Boredly, Welman began to slide from one side of his 'prison' and think of a new way to escape from his aforementioned captive state. He was so distracted in his thoughts, the professor almost didn't hear the door of the office open and a plaintive voice call into the echoing space.

"Dad?"

Turning sharply to the side, Welman saw a small, binome little girl in a red pleated skirt, her dark blonde hair held back from her rectangular head by a red ribbon tied in a bow atop it.

The girl held a small doll with green skin, dressed in a dark blue uniform, like the one the Guardian Bob wore. The toy was clutched loosely in the child's left grip as she slowly entered the office looked around aimlessly.

"No, he's not here either." She lowered her gaze and sniffled. "Oh Dad…"

Welman felt a pain in his heart and let out a squeaking sound, the girl raised her eye took look sharply in the direction of the noise. She let out a gasp, but then grew a little bolder when she saw that the null was behind glass.

"Did you just squeak at me?" The girl asked curiously. Welman nodded his head and squeaked again in assent.

The child clutched her doll to her chest as she slowly approached the tank, stepping over pieces of rubble. "Hello there. Usually nulls aren't that talkative," she reached the desk where Welman was tapping his head against the glass. "My name is Case-ie, what's yours?"

"His name is Nibbles," a deep, commanding voice suddenly interrupted, and both Case-ie and Welman looked sharply over at the entrance to the office.

The source of the deep voice was a tall, broad-chested young man sprite, with ebony hair, green skin and a well kept beard, the same colour as his dark hair. The intimidating, muscular sprite was half in the shadows, and when he stepped further into the dim light, Welman could see his gold, cybernetic right eye glint.

The young man sprite had an easy swagger as he walked, confident, bold, every inch a warrior in every step he took. Dressed in a padded vest with embellishments and fitted, dark blue pants with a red stripe running on the outsides, the man spite's heavy, laced boots made a dull thump as he climbed over the crumbling rubble to the girl.

Case-ie stared up at the man for a moment, before staring at his icon a moment, then glancing back up at him. "I know you!" She lifted up her doll and pointed to it. "You're _him_!"

The young man sprite chuckled and squatted down to the girl's level, "Yeah, yeah I'm him… well," he took the offered doll and studied it with a sad smile. "I _was_ him."

Case-ie twirled a piece of her hair around her finger shyly, "You still are him, Guardian, you're just much bigger now."

Welman looked sharply at the young man sprite, _So he's a Guardian like Bob…? I have to get his attention, maybe he can take me to Dot and Enzo…_

The muscular Guardian sighed and handed the doll back to Case-ie, "Yeah, you're right. So," he stood up straight, looking carefully down at the girl, "What are you doing here of all places, Case-ie?"

Frowning, the girl binome looked around, "I came looking for my Dad, he was under the control of Megabyte and I thought I might find him here." She cuddled her doll close to her chest. "Can you help me find him, Mister Guardian, sir?"

The young man sprite rubbed the back of his neck, "I'll try my best, Case-ie, I promise. But I don't think your Dad is in here. We've evacuated and checked out all of these levels of the Principal Office. The only beings who aren't meant to be here are you and your doll," he explained kindly.

Welman wished he could smile. Clearly this young man sprite was a battle hardened warrior, but he had a gentleness about him, a kindness that shone through whatever tough life he'd had.

The young man sprite bent down and picked up Case-ie, holding the girl binome securely in his firm grip as he shifted her to his right hip. "Come on. I'll take you to the camp and we'll see about finding you a nice hot drink and somewhere safe to sleep tonight. Then we'll see about finding your Dad, okay?"

As they started to walk away, Welman suddenly remembered his predicament and began tapping and squeaking loudly.

"Stop!" Case-ie suddenly exclaimed, pointing over the Guardian's broad shoulder. "What about Nibbles?"

Halting, the Guardian half turned to look over at the null, squeaking and pounding furiously on the glass of his prison. "Nibbles?" He raised an eyebrow. "He was Megabyte's pet. He's always been odd for a null, friendly even. He might have something wrong with him. Case-ie, maybe it's best if we just leave him here–"

Case-ie's lower lip quivered, "Please don't, Mister Guardian. I feel sorry for him." She blinked her eye. "He's all alone. Maybe we're wrong about nulls, and they do remember their families and friends. Maybe he just wants to go back to his family."

Welman wished he could have hugged the girl right at that moment, he looked up as the intimidating, young man sprite made his way back over with the girl binome, looking down at him consideringly.

"You sound like my Dad, he always thought that nulls could be saved, somehow. He probably believed that until the day I lost him." The Guardian murmured quietly, his real eye, a familiar dark violet, continued staring at the green null in front of him.

_A man after my own heart_, Welman thought, trying to shake off the feeling of over familiarity in that expression on the Guardian's serious face.

Case-ie looked up at the green skinned man sprite holding her, "You lost your Dad, too?"

The Guardian shook his head, "A long time ago. He either died in the explosion that ripped apart Twin Cities, or he was nullified." He revealed slowly.

Welman lowered his head and sighed a squeaking null sigh. _I'm so sorry_…

"What?" The Guardian suddenly exclaimed, noticing how the null reacted. "Nibbles, did you just react to what I just said?"

Perking up, Professor Matrix nodded enthusiastically.

"Wow!" Case-ie exclaimed and the Guardian put down the girl, folding his arms across his broad chest as he eyed off the null.

"Well, I suppose having you loose, Nibbles, will be a good distraction for Hack and Slash when they just won't go away." The young man sprite rubbed his eyes. "Oh man, my sister is going to kill me. Let's just hope Dot doesn't find out about this."

_Dot_? Welman looked sharply up at the Guardian. _No, he can't be! Enzo is just a little boy, no more than 1.1, surely…unless I miscalculated the time I've spent, I mean his skin tone and his expression…no I haven't miscalculated, I've been watching the vidwindows…the Guardian must have meant his sister __**and**__ Dot will kill him…wait, he knows Dot?_

Before he could react, Welman felt the tank being lifted up and he was dumped unceremoniously onto the ground. Letting out a squeak of indignation, Welman looked up at the hulking sprite.

"Well go on then," the young man sprite –who unnerved Welman because he was so painfully familiar, and yet couldn't be, his son– encouraged. "Go about your business, Nibbles." He reached over and picked up Case-ie again. "Let go."

As they walked away, Case-ie waved over her rescuer's shoulder, "Bye-bye Nibbles, I hope you find your family."

Welman Matrix watched the Guardian and girl binome depart with a curious cock of his green null head, not fully understanding why that young man sprite was so much like his Enzo.

Sighing, Welman looked around. _Well, at least I'm free…until that Hack and Slash decide to start chasing me about again…_

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**Time**: Not to long after the System Reboot, during the events of_ Daemon Rising…_

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"**H**i Dad!" Little Enzo chirped enthusiastically, after his null-bodied father, Professor Welman Matrix, had pieced himself together from the various coloured nulls.

"_Dad_?" A deep, careful voice questioned, Welman turned his null head sharply, he'd heard that voice before.

It was the Guardian. The tall, bearded, muscular green young man sprite that had released him from his glass prison just before the system had been rebooted.

"Where's Bob?" The virus– Hexadecimal– demanded suddenly, Welman tore his gaze away from the Guardian to see Hexadecimal addressing a beautiful, young woman sprite with teal coloured hair, dressed in shimmering, fitted scale covered tights and a matching crop top. Her silver boots were graced with green fins, the same as occurred naturally out of her forearms.

"Daemon's got him." Little Enzo responded.

Hexadecimal turned to the boy, "Show me."

Little Enzo nodded, "Right," he glanced between the Guardian and his father. "Oh. Dad this is Matrix, you heard Phong talk about him, he's me…well, technically I'm him since he's the original and I'm the backup. Big me, this is Dad, yeah he's Nibbles, weird, I know. Let's go, Hex." He ran off and Hexadecimal followed close behind the young sprite.

Welman turned slowly to face his grown son, drinking in every line and precious features of his solemn face. "Enzo?" He whispered and the young man sprite nodded slowly. "Oh my boy." He twisted his null-hands together. "I should have known the moment I laid eyes on you before the system reboot, regardless of how old you were."

Enzo Matrix folded his arms to stop them from shaking, "It's okay. Dot didn't recognise me either when I returned, and it's not exactly like I would have recognised you at all, either," he almost smiled, but the smile fell away as his lower lip trembled. "Oh Dad, I'm so sorry…"

Welman hated every part of his null form, he wanted to cry, he wanted to throw his arms around his son and tell him everything was going to be all right. "I'm the one who is sorry, Enzo. My poor boy. I left you without a father. Phong told me how you complied faster because you game-hopped." He would have furrowed his brow, if he had one.

"You had to compile up alone and too quickly."

Matrix nodded, "But it's all right, Dad. I helped save Mainframe, I defeated Megabyte...and I wasn't alone during those years I spent in the games," he motioned off to the side, and Welman watched as the lovely young, teal haired woman sprite he'd noticed before came up to his grown son's side. "I had AndrAIa. AndrAIa, this is my Father, Professor Welman Matrix. Dad, this is AndrAIa."

AndrAIa smiled up at the green null-headed professor, her dark teal coloured eyes twinkling, "It's an honour to meet you, Professor Matrix."

Welman swelled up with pride when he saw his son's arm around the waist of this young lady, "The honour is all mine, AndrAIa, and please, call me Welman." He insisted. Phong had told him all about AndrAIa, but Welman hadn't expected to see just how in love his son and the mermaid-like, former game-sprite were. Now he knew.

"We'd better get to the command centre and see how we can help. We can talk more later." Matrix suggested quietly, AndrAIa and Welman nodded in agreement and followed Matrix towards the interior of the Principal Office.

Welman glanced aside at his complied-up son and realised something. The same sprite they may be despite their ages, Little Enzo and Enzo, but there was a marked difference, at least to him. Little Enzo was like discovering a child Welman never got the chance to know, a third child, who still knew him and needed him.

Matrix…_his_ Enzo, on the other hand, was the same baby sprite Welman had held proudly in his arms as his beloved wife, Cora, had passed him over. The same little baby sprite brother Dot had doted on and had taken care of after their mother died. The scraped knees, the birthdays and celebrations…he could still hear Enzo's the joyful laugh when Welman had brought home the puppy Frisket for his 0.6's birthday.

All that might be shared by his two sons in memory at least, but it was the elder to which Welman knew it truly belonged. Matrix was the one who had truly borne all of the time lost, all the pain in the aftermath of the Twin City explosion, the one who had fought and grown in the shadow of Megabyte. Little Enzo was duly the past and the possibility, Matrix was duly the past and the now.

Welman loved them both, but they were different to him, and he was sure Dot and the Guardian Bob, who had had a hand in raising Matrix, also felt the same way. He now had three children, not just one daughter and the same son split in two, Dot, Enzo and Little Enzo.

He now had three reason to fight to find a way to cure his null state. _User permitting_, Welman thought looking fondly at his eldest son and his girlfriend. _I might just be able to hold my grandsprites in my arms_.

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_**Thank-you for reading.**_


End file.
